You might remember that Missoula’s Mayor John Engen promised to have more snowplows on the road this winter.

I drove around today and you can tell that’s just not the case. Even main roadways, like Main Street downtown, are terrible. The side streets haven’t been plowed at all.

In a way, I’m happy about this.

Democrats got what they wanted. They voted Engen in again, and they’ll get the sky-high taxes, the morasses-for-roads, and a housing and job market that sucks dick.

No matter how bad it gets, Democrats will continue to support their own.

Now might be a good time to point out that 60% of Americans call themselves ‘Independents.’

You wouldn’t know it driving around Missoula today.

Those Evil Corporations

We hear all the time about how evil corporations are.

We heard this a lot more this month as the corporate tax rate was cut. Boy...Dems sure squealed about that, but now we get reports that they won't try to repeal it. Why? They know Americans are going to benefit from it.

‘Boy…those corporations are bad!’

Despite that, I buy most of my stuff from corporations.

For instance…

I bought some groceries at Albertson’s this week.

I ate breakfast at McDonald’s recently.

I watched a few big Hollywood studio movies this week.

I drive a car.

I wear shoes.

I use the phone and internet.

I bank.

All of those things require me to give my money to a corporation.

I do that happily and by choice. The reason is simple – I want their products or services. Sure…sometimes I might bat my eye at their prices, and maybe in some areas I don’t have as many choices as I want.

Some corporations do bad things, but there's a very, very simple answer there - don't buy their products.

Mostly, I’d rather have corporations than nothing.

Most Americans are the same way.

It’s why the corporations can stay in business.

In the Paper

Got my name in the paper again yesterday. Maybe you saw it.

It was a Lee Enterprises report, so it ran in all the major Montana papers. The story was about U.S. Congressional candidates and their money.

When it got to me at the end of the article, it said I hadn’t filed my candidate financial disclosure forms.

That’s exactly correct.

After reading that, I decided to find those forms. I had a hard time doing it, so I called up the FEC in the District of Criminals and the woman assigned to my candidacy pointed me in the right direction.

The form is actually FEC Form #3, Report of Receipts and Disbursements.

That’s probably why I had such a hard time finding it…I figured it’d be called ‘candidate financial disclosure’ or something like that. The woman on the phone said she’s gotten a lot of calls asking the same thing.

I also learned that I won’t face the $200 fine for not filing that within 30 days of announcing my candidacy.

I also won’t have to file a finance report by the January 31 deadline…unless I manage to raise $50,000 by then.

Hell…I don’t even know how I’m gonna come up with the $800 to pay the rent in 5 days.

So like I said to Phil Drake of the GF Trib when he called me up a few weeks ago…’I wouldn’t call myself a serious candidate because I haven’t paid the $1,700 filing fee and I don’t think I’m gonna come up with the money to do so.’

There’s now about 75 days to file (and pay the fee) if you want to run for Congress in 2018.

I’m so glad that I decided to print off that 2-page statement of candidacy form a couple months ago!

I wish more people would do the same. You learn a lot about the process, and that’s knowledge that not many have. Now, in the future, I can tell people what they need to do, what forms they need, what the deadlines are, and a bit more.

Of course, Jon Tester doesn’t like that…and that’s a shame. The Dem Party in Montana is in such shambles, he should be trying to cultivate future talent, which he could do by encouraging primary challengers.

But he likes power too much, and wants most of it to himself. There will be no challengers, and the Dem Party will continue its precipitous decline in the Treasure State.

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Montana Blogby Greg Strandberg

This Montana history blog is working its way up through time.It began in March 2013 with the early geology of Montana and continues on toward recent Montana history. Currently we're edging up into the 1990s.